


The place where I'm lonely

by psychomachia



Category: Log Horizon
Genre: Gen, Investigations, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21929947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychomachia/pseuds/psychomachia
Summary: Minori is asked to solve a mystery. It's made harder by being virtually impossible.
Relationships: Shiroe & Minori (Log Horizon)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	The place where I'm lonely

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maat_seshat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maat_seshat/gifts).



“Look, we're not crazy,” Kaori says. The Shining Sky guild master's sitting on her couch, her senior guild mates on either side of her. “We know that there's probably a really good explanation for this.” She bites her lip. “But we--”

Yuina puts a hand on her shoulder. “It's getting bad,” she says. “Like really bad.”

Minori looks up from her notebook and nodded encouragingly. “Go on,” she says. She straightens up, tries to appear more assertive, more trustworthy, like she's not a teenage girl bossing around other teenagers? Adults? Maybe that's why she can get away with it – no one can tell if the girl in pink is really in high school or has ten grandkids and retired years ago.

But still, she should get glasses like Shiroe or Henrietta. That way, she can push them up, let them flash in the light, and people can see she means business. Terrifying, important business. “I'm here to help.”

“You have to get rid of the ghost,” Akemi blurts out. “Please!”

A ghost, Minori thinks. Well, that's—maybe not new or completely unexpected, but definitely something not popping up around Akibahara with any frequency. Killers, monsters, occasional explosions from experiments gone wrong – those she's seen.

But that?

“I'm sorry,” she says. “You said a ghost?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous.” Kaori ducks her head, lets her hair fall in front of her face. “I mean, if someone dies, they come back. We all know that.”

Minori nods. “Why do you think it's one then?”

Akemi and Yuina look at each other over Kaori's bowed head, then Yuina clears her throat. “Well, if it's just one of us around, things will happen in the building. Like doors slamming or the lamps will go out or something will go missing. Yesterday, Akemi's fan was found slashed up in the trash and one of my quills was floating in the well.”

She's writing all of this down. “But only when you three are around? Don't you have other guild members?”

“About seven junior members,” Akemi confesses. “But the ghost leaves them alone. It just wants to hurt us.”

“Can you think of any reason why it would target you specifically?”

Kaori raises her head. Her eyes are red. “No,” she whispers. “Just please make it stop.”

“All right,” Minori says. “I promise.”

* * *

“You think they're lying.” Shiroe's busy sorting papers into stacks. Even on a day off, where he's not creating new magic, running a city, or fighting some major boss, he never rests.

“I don't--”. Minori hesitates. “I don't think they're lying about everything. There could really be something that's trying to hurt them.” She keeps going back to Kaori's face, trying to hold back tears.

And Akemi and Yuina looking at each other, something guilty flashing in their eyes.

“Did you see it?”

“No,” Minori says reluctantly. “Nothing happened while I was there. But they were all really scared. I don't think they were acting.”

“It's not a bad thing to want to help people,” Shiroe says, smiling, but his tone doesn't quite match it. “But make sure you don't get caught up in troubles where people take advantage of you. You're a good person.”

Minori flushes, thinks back to Hamelin and Shiroe having to save her and Touya because of how stupid they were. Even if everyone tells her it's okay, that she didn't do anything wrong, that now she's safe, she knows they're wrong. Touya was trapped because she was weak, because--

Shiroe puts a hand on her shoulder. “They came to you for a reason, though,” he says, more gently. “I know you can handle this, and more importantly, you know you can. You wouldn't have accepted unless you believed you could do it.”

Right, Minori thinks. She can figure this out. Maybe she's not Shiroe, who could come up with some sort of multi-layered, clever plan like he did in Hamelin, but--

“I have to go,” Minori says.

She has an idea.

* * *

“Resetting the permissions on the building?” Kaori asks. “What would that do?”

Minori goes over to the board they have on the wall, grabs the piece of chalk. She writes for a few seconds, then steps back. “This is the possibilities I currently have for who your ghost might be.”

  1. NPC
  2. System glitch
  3. Player



The three members of Shining Sky look at it. Akemi's the first to speak. “You think it could be something other than a ghost? But we've been in the same room as it when it's done things and we can't even see it.”

“Which is why,” Minori says patiently, “if you reset the building and then manually add every guild member back in, it should rule out anyone who's not supposed to be there. If somehow it's a bug in the game or an NPC spawning where they shouldn't, then it should fix the problem since it'll be back to its default state.”

“I see.” It's Yuina this time, looking thoughtful. She's been the calmest through it all, the one that's given the most details. “And if it's an enemy player, then they'll be kicked outside and not allowed to come back in.”

“Exactly,” Minori says. “It will also solve the problem of if other people have used this building before and still have access to it.”

“Oh, that's not a problem,” Akemi says. “It's always been registered under Shining Sky.”

“And besides you three and your newest members, there's no other legitimate guild member that will lose access to it? Because once you do this, it's a complete wipe. Even if someone's using an item to hide themselves and cause problems, they'll be just as affected by the reset as you.”

They really are terrible liars, Minori thinks. She's not as adept as Shiroe at recognizing them, but she's gotten much better at reading people and the way they're fidgeting, looking anxiously around, and not making eye contact—well, it doesn't take a demon in glasses to see they might know exactly why this is happening to them.

But they came to her for help and she'll do the best she can.

“No,” Kaori finally says. “There's no one but us.”

* * *

“It's a good idea.” They're eating bowls of amazing curry because Nyanta is back and they're celebrating by making him cook. Shiroe's got a blissful expression on his face that can only mean he's actually not thinking about anything but seconds. It's a nice evening.

“If it works.” If Shining Sky is hiding something, if they're not telling the truth...

“You gave them a chance to come clean,” Shiroe says. “There are two ways this goes. Either it works and you can decide if it's worth pursuing any further, or it doesn't work and you decide whether you want to keep helping them.”

“That doesn't sound like two ways,” Minori says, her voice dubious. “That sounds like two choices with ways branching off of them.”

“Yes, it does, but you're familiar with that, aren't you?” Shiroe sets his spoon down. “Every time you forecast, you're choosing the path that damages the least and helps the most. That's what support is – not being the one in front, but ensuring that others can step up.”

Minori looks down at her curry. “And if they're not willing to?”

Shiroe sighs. “I can explain why they should, I can plead or coax, I can even try to manipulate people into doing the right thing.” He waves around him. “And sometimes, I'll do the wrong thing so everyone else can do the right one.”

She knows always thinks so much less of himself than the rest of them do, but that's why he needs Log Horizon, why he needs his friends. Even the greatest support needs someone to catch them if they're falling.

So Minori doesn't say anything, waits for him to continue.

And he does. “I'll go to the end for something I believe in,” he says. “But we both know there are times when you'll have to walk away, knowing that the choice you're making isn't a good one, but it's the only one you can. Sometimes you can come back later, and things will be different. And sometimes you can't.”

Minori opens her mouth, not sure what she's going to say but before she can, she's interrupted by an incoming communication. It's from Kaori.

“They're calling,” she says.

Shiroe nods. “You'll make the right decision.”

“You've forecast it?” Minori says. It doesn't quite come off as a joke.

Shiroe picks up his curry again. “No,” he says. “I know you.”

* * *

Kaori's wails are still ringing in her ears when she reaches the outside of the Shining Sky guild building. “It's back!” Kaori says. “I'd only added in Yuina and Akemi, no one else, and it's worse than ever!”

Akemi and Yuina are clutching each other and Kaori is pacing back and forth. From outside, she can see that the inside is a shambles, books on the floor, broken shards of pottery, and a rug ripped and torn.

“You're finally here,” Kaori says when she sees Minori. “It didn't work—it has to be a ghost!”

“Yes,” Minori says, and she hopes she sounds like Shiroe when she says calmly and coolly, “or you've been lying to me about something and it was never going to work.”

“What? No!” But Kaori doesn't sound that shocked and Akemi's mouth keeps opening and closing, like she wants to say something, but isn't sure if she should.

Finally, it's Yuina, who speaks up, sounding tired and defeated. “There used to be four of us,” she says. “It has to be Naomi.”

“Yuina!”

“I'm sorry, Kaori,” Yuina says. “But if there's someone that would think we need to suffer for something, you know it has to be her.”

“Who's Naomi?” Minori can still hear crashing around inside, like something's rampaging through, ripping apart anything it can find.

“She's not anyone,” Kaori says. “She's not even a part of the guild anymore.”

“She used to be our guild master.” It's Akemi, unexpectedly, who speaks up. “She founded Shining Sky, got us all to join her. We were together for a while.”

“What happened?” Minori's watching Kaori to see if she'll crack, but Kaori's lips are firmly shut, her face filled with resentment.

Yuina shrugs. “It was fun for a little bit, but then, it wasn't. A few of us wanted to do more raids, explore more of the land, take more risks even if it meant we might die.” She's looking at Kaori now too. “And Naomi didn't think we were ready.”

“I don't think she thought we'd ever be ready,” Akemi says softly. “We fought a lot about it and she never changed her mind. But we never wanted to hurt her.”

“So she left?”

“We made her leave.” Yuina says. “Or rather, Kaori did. She waited until Naomi had logged off, had us vote her out, and then told Naomi she had to surrender all her guild privileges.”

Well, that explains part of it, Minori thinks. Administrative privileges. If she still managed to retain ownership somehow, letting Kaori think she had given up all control... no wonder they'd never be able to kick her out. “You didn't think this would be important to tell me until now?”

“No!” Kaori finally breaks. “We got rid of her, took her off our friends list, and never saw her again. We figured she stopped playing. Anyhow, how she's even doing this if it really is her? Did she get some sort of rare item or something that she didn't want to share.”

Minori looks at Akemi and Yuina, now both crying, than over at Kaori, who's still defiant, angry, and frustrated.

She closes her eyes. Is there a way to make people happy – to solve this so no one gets hurt?

She doesn't know.

“What are you going to do?” Kaori asks.

Minori walks over to the window, summons up her courage.

“Naomi?” She says. “I'd like to talk to you.”

The crashing stops. There's silence that stretches on for some time.

“You do?”

The voice is small and sad.

* * *

“I have to admit,” Shiroe says. “That is a new glitch.”

“She told me she had taken that potion of invisibility to sneak her way back in and just mess with them a little. Then when the update hit--”

“The potion became permanent. Naomi could have left, but she was terrified. She didn't know what was happening and she couldn't talk to any of her friends. So she stayed there, hoping she'd be able to get them to talk to her.”

Shiroe shakes his head. “She didn't say anything.”

“Naomi said she kept hearing Kaori talk about how useless she would have been in this situation, how she would have been weak, someone who just needed to be propped up by stronger people.” Minori still remembers her voice, another broken thing in the middle of all the devastation. “So she got angry.”

“But she didn't want to hurt anyone else,” Shiroe says. “Just her friends.”

“Yes,” Minori says. “And when they finally tried to expel her, well, that was it.” She swallows a little before steeling herself to ask. “Is there a way to reverse it? To make her visible again?”

“I don't know. We can ask some of the other guilds.” Shiroe's face is thoughtful. “But if there isn't, I think Log Horizon is well up to the task of finding a way to make it happen.”

Minori finally smiles. Of course, they are. No matter what it is, when they work together, impossible things can happen. People can be saved. Even-- “I think Akemi and Yuina would like to see their friend again.” She tries to sound hopeful, positive.

But as always, Shiroe can read her, can sense her hesitation, her doubt. “Three out of four is still a success,” he says. “If you're not sure--”

Kaori, bitter and angry and wanting her friend to agree with her. To go exploring and see the world and maybe stop being afraid of everything. Kaori, who was tormented and terrified by the same friend she had driven out, made invisible, refused to listen to until she had no choice.

Kaori, who heard her voice and for a moment, looked just as sad and lost as Naomi sounded.

“No,” Minori says. “I know I can do it.”

And she doesn't have to forecast to know she's right.


End file.
